Lecturer in Digital Media and Communications
Dr Taner DoÄŸan is a Lecturer in Digital Media and Communications at ɬÂþÌìÌà (ɬÂþÌìÌÃ). He is also the Programme Leader of MSc Political Communication and Public Affairs. Dr DoÄŸan is a member of the Culture in Society Research Centre.
- Overview
- Research Overview
- Research Publications
- Teaching & Learning
Dr Taner DoÄŸan is Lecturer in Digital Media and Communications and Programme Leader of the MSc Political Communication and Public Affairs at ɬÂþÌìÌÃ, Edinburgh. He is also Visiting Fellow at the European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He is the author of Communication Strategies in Turkey (I.B. Tauris/Bloomsbury, 2021).
Grounded in the philosophy of technology, Dr Doğan’s research investigates how digitalisation reshapes contemporary society and the ways in which human beings think. He asks how the digital regime erodes contemplation, reduces truth to calculability, and subjugates knowledge to metrics of optimisation and control. He also engages critically with Orientalism and cultural self-Orientalism, with a particular focus on Global South contexts.
Dr Doğan holds a PhD in Journalism from City, University of London, where his thesis examined the political communication strategies of Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP). He earned an MA in Global Media and Postnational Communication at SOAS, University of London. His dissertation—The Mobilisation of Tahrir Square as an Arab Street and Al Jazeera’s Role—was grounded in fieldwork in Cairo and Doha, including interviews with journalists, activists, and politicians; during this period he was a Research Fellow at the American University in Cairo.
Dr Doğan serves on the editorial board of the Turkish Review of Communication Studies and is a member of the British Academy Early Career Researcher Network and IAMCR. Bilingual in German and Turkish, he has professional experience in broadcast and digital journalism and has taught at King’s College London (Digital Humanities) and at LSE (Media and Communications).
Grounded in the philosophy of technology and the ontology of the digital - subjects, publics and truth - Dr Taner Doğan’s research investigates how digitalisation reshapes contemporary society and modes of thought and being. He asks how the digital regime erodes contemplation, reduces truth to calculability, and subjugates knowledge to metrics of optimisation and control. He engages critically with Orientalism and cultural self-Orientalism, especially in Global South contexts.
Dr Doğan’s doctoral research examined the political communication strategies of Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP). Drawing on political communication and social movement theory, and employing mixed qualitative and quantitative methods, the study identified two distinct policy periods. The first (2002-2009) was characterised by a liberal political orientation, in which the AKP emphasised human rights, freedom of speech, and the rule of law. From 2010 onwards, the party’s discourse shifted towards populism, a turn that - in retrospect - has problematised Turkey’s democratisation process.
Active Research Interests:
- Digital culture
- Philosophy of technology
- AI and society—algorithmic governance, data colonisation
- Political communication and populism
- Religion, media and the public sphere
- Neoliberalism and the political economy of media
- Orientalism
- Global South (especially MENA, Turkey, Egypt)
Research Methods:
- In-depth and semi-structured interviews
- Ethnography
- Focus groups
- Content analysis
- Participatory research
Research Centres:
- Full member of the Centre for Culture in Society
Dr Taner Doğan teaches Digital Culture and Society; Critical Thinking and Creative Writing; Key Concepts in Political Communication; and Media and Creative Industries. He supervises master’s and doctoral research in the fields of philosophy of technology, digital culture, AI and society (algorithmic governance, data colonisation), political communication and populism, religion, media and the public sphere, Orientalism, collective memory, and the political economy of media. Dr Doğan welcomes applications from prospective doctoral researchers whose projects align with these areas.
